


Everything You Are

by LLReid



Series: Written In The Stars [1]
Category: Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Genre: AU, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, Fluff, dyslexic writer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-28 23:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20434199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid
Summary: A short and fluffy insomnia induced one shot where Helena Klein and Athena Spencer say ‘I love you’ for the first time.Takes place long before the events of my story ‘I Will Always Find You’.





	Everything You Are

Helena was certain that the strange girl she had found in the woods was not the Queen. In her entire thirty years the sorceress had not met a single person who was so wonderfully smart and kind and downright eccentric in the most captivating way — and Athena not only seemed to like her but desire her, too. During her time as a bandit she had met some incredibly colourful characters who had been on the run from one thing or another, yet none had piqued her interest in the same way that the raven haired beauty had...not even the Witch Queen herself had made her feel like a moth being drawn to a flame. She was absolutely maddening.

The library looked as it had always had: dim, cavernous, achingly beautiful in its cold stone architecture and endless corridors lined with books. In a castle that did not value books or reading it had been one of Helena’s favourite refuges from her fellow generals, usually totally silent and lonely...but no longer. It was different, made warmer somehow by the company she was keeping. The otherworldly woman was sat on one of the window ledges pouring over a human history book with the most awestruck expression on her face that she could not even begin to decipher — not for lack of trying. She had been trying to read for the past two hours — trying and failing because she could not stop herself from constantly stealing glances at Athena. Even an utterly sinful romance novel had not held her interest.

“Yeah, so, I definitely don’t think I’m dreaming anymore.”

“Oh?” Amused, she looked up from the botany book she was attempting to read from the other side of the window ledge to be greeted with wide silver eyes sparkling wildly at her in the light pouring through the frosted glass. “What gave it away?”

“My entire life I’ve been told that I have quite the vivid imagination but I don’t have the brains to make this up,” she chuckled, closing the leather bound book, her eyes never leaving Helena’s. And it knocked the breath out of her, because it made her feel so strangely young — when she was actually the eldest of the pair. “Like, this whole thing is too wild not to be real. I’ve not only been transported to a magical fantasyland but there’s also this really detailed history that I know I couldn’t possibly have made up. I’m a public school kid from Chicago who ditched school more often than I actually attended so I don’t know anything about medieval war or royalty or politics. It must be real — and if it’s not JK Rowling better watch her fucking back when I wake up.”

“JK who?”

“One of the most famous authors in my world,” Athena giggled.

“I am still unsure of what magic brought you here...or how to send you home, if that is what you wish.” She tried to hide the note of panic in her voice at the thought of losing the woman that she was falling in love with, of sending home the one person who had never treated her anything but kindly despite knowing the truth of her sins. Though, she must not have done a very good job because the woman sitting opposite her slid across the dark wooden window ledge and took her hand, looking at her in a way nobody else ever had, perhaps a hint that she returned her loving feelings glistening behind her eyes. Athena stared at her long enough for heat to flood her cheeks, as if she could see right inside of her — see everything. The fact that she did not turn away from whatever she saw made her blood thrum in her veins.

“My life in Chicago wasn’t that great. I can promise you no one is missing me.”

“I find that very difficult to believe.”

“I left home an hour after I graduated high school at seventeen and haven’t went back or spoken a word to my family since, and I keep a tiny circle of people around me who have incredibly busy lives that I purposely keep at arms length. So trust me, nobody even knows I’m gone...and I’m not missing them either.”

“I would miss your presence if you left for even a moment,” she confessed, averting her eyes to the floor. She could not quite comprehend the depths of her love for Athena and was not even sure when it had bloomed the way it had; she was still trying to figure out when it had happened, exactly. It somehow felt as if it had always been Athena that her heart had belonged to, even from the very beginning, even before they had ever met — and that terrified her. The things she cared for had a habit of being taken from her.

Soft lips brushed against her cheek, taking her by surprise — no one had ever kissed her on the cheek before. When she looked back up Athena smiled at her. And damn if it did not almost kill her, the quiet joy in her face. It seemed that they had walked through a similar sort of darkness and pain and despair, an entire world away from each other. That smile…it struck her stupid every time she saw it and realised it was actually for her. “I would miss you, too, Helena.”

“You...you would?”

“Far more than you think that I would.” Her heart strained, as Athena pulled back to lift a hand to caress her face. Helena read the softness in her eyes, her body, and her own inherent fierceness slipped into a gentleness that so few would ever see. Her throat ached with the effort of keeping the three words she longed to say in. How she loved her. She tried not to think about it, about whether she actually felt the same or whether she was merely fooling herself into believing that such a wonderful person could ever return her feelings.

Boldly, she lifted Athena onto her lap. She felt the girl’s eyes on her the whole time, felt her body go still with focus, as she kissed the corner of her mouth, the bow of her lips, the other corner. Soft, taunting kisses. With a sharp intake of breath, she gripped her hips, tugging her against her as she slanted her mouth over hers, deepening the kiss. Helena’s tongue brushed hers — lazy, deft strokes that told her precisely what she was capable of doing elsewhere. Embers sparked in her blood, and the magic in her veins threatened to flare with the thrill of it all. When Helena broke the kiss, breathing ragged, she was instantly satisfied to find Athena’s own chest rising and falling in the same uneven rhythm her own was. So new — this thing between them was still so new, so...raw. Utterly calming and...right. The physical desire was only the start of it, because now, no matter how she might have once tried to envision her future, or who she thought she might spend it with, she could not imagine being with anyone else — wanting anyone else.

All thoughts of awakening the Witch Queen had been pushed the bottom of a very, very long and bloody priority list. Athena was everything that the Witch Queen was not. She had embraced kindness and light, even when her doppelgänger’s accomplishments were all death and torture and pain. With Athena, she would no longer have to clean her blades, and wash the blood from her skin again and again and again. 

“This entire world is against us, you know,” she whispered, moving to rest her brow against the younger woman’s. “After all that I have done this world knows me as a monster. I do not know of anywhere we would find some semblance of safety.”

Like a prayer, that was how her name sounded on her lips. She took her face in her hands, finding her eyes blazing, her breathing still as ragged as her own. “You may have made mistakes, Helena, but truly monstrous people don’t have to be manipulated into their actions and don’t feel guilty afterwards. I’ve known my share of terrible people, and you’re not one of them.”

“I...I suppose they do not...”

“I wouldn’t have fallen head over heels in love with a monster, now would I?”

Her jaw dropped and she blinked, the words ringing out in her head for a solid minute before she could remember how to talk. “You...you love me?”

“I do.” Athena’s cheeks flushed a rosy shade of pink and for the first time in their almost four weeks of knowing one another, her usual self confidence abandoned her. “Like, I’ve been with other people before but it’s never been like this. I’ve never felt so...complete. No one has ever made me want to stay.” Helena could not stop the tears that began slipping down her face. “Whatever you had to do to survive, whatever she did to you, whatever anyone else’s opinions of you are...it doesn’t change how I feel. You survived — and you’re absolutely perfect. You always were, and you always will be. I love you, Helena Klein.”

She had not realised just how much she had needed and wanted to hear those words. She flung her arms around her and squeezed her as tightly as she dared. He wrapped both of her arms around her tiny frame and buried her face in her neck. “I love you, too,” she whispered onto her, breathing in her scent — that intoxicating scent she was just learning, remembering. “I cannot tell if I should be ashamed of wanting to hold you on this day, or grateful that, despite everything that happened before now, it somehow brought me to you. But I believe that everything happened, exactly the way it had to...so I could find you.”

“You never have to be ashamed for wanting to hold me, Helena...because I’m damn proud to be yours.”

She captured her lips once more, kissing her so deeply that she took her own breath away. Deep down she wondered if some part of her had always knew what was waiting for her. That she would never be a gentle grower of beautiful things, or someone who burned like fire — but that she would be quiet and enduring and as faceted as the night. That she perhaps have a strange sort of beauty, for those who knew where to look, and if people did not bother to look, but to only fear it...then she would not particularly care for them, anyway. She wondered if, even in her moments of despair and hopelessness, she was never truly alone. She wondered if she was looking for her — looking for Athena the entire time. That, perhaps, there are people who need you to save them as much as you yourself need to be saved.

“For the first time in my life I am grateful that I am not particularly ordinary.” The brunette was smiling at her as she leaned back to catch her breath. Lips kiss swollen and stars glistening in those beautiful eyes. “As you are as far from ordinary as I.”

“It’d be so boring if we were.”

Helena grinned. “Incredibly boring. And, for whatever it happens to be worth, I would pick you over a thousand ordinary and extraordinary people. I think even if we had met on the street, even if I just saw you randomly in passing, I would have known right away what you are.”

Athena cocked her head to the side. “An alien?”

Helena giggled, her blue eyes bright as she shook her head. “Du bist die Liebe meines Lebens. The love of my life.”

Unspent tears glistened in Athena’s eyes and she smiled at her. She smiled in that special way that seemed to be reserved only for Helena, that made her feel brave and strong and perfect and everything that had seemed to be so far beyond her reach for her entire life. 

“Do that again,” the sorceress breathed. 

So Athena smiled again, giggling. And she looked so baffled by it that she asked, “What?” 

“That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” she said, bold and unashamed. It was so easy. They were so, so easy with each other — a family in their own way after only a few weeks at one another’s side. Uncorrupted by the remnants of a wicked empire, by the years of brutality and slavery and bloodshed, by the group of men threatening to tear them apart. She could almost see their souls lined up beside each other: Athena’s bright and clear, hers a flickering black flame. Opposites that attracted. 

And for the first time in a damn long while, Helena’s heart felt peace. All felt like it might just come to be well.


End file.
